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In this dissertation I seek to explain the aesthetic and technical rationale behind the portfolio of scores and recordings which it accompanies. This body of works is preoccupied with illusion in several guises. While peripherally examining optical illusions and drawing inspiration from them, I attempted to use structures and principles found in performance magic to aid my composing with psychoacoustic illusions. This dissertation describes the process of composing in such a manner and identifies the problems, challenges, strategies, aesthetic notions and musical philosophies that arose from compositionally engaging aural illusions. The first chapter defines what is meant by illusion within the context of this research project and sets out my research questions. The second surveys existing research on psychoacoustic illusions and performance magic, while also discussing instances where psychoacoustic illusions have been adapted into compositional contexts. These existing adaptations are evaluated according to how palpable the adapted illusion is within the context of the piece, the manner in which the illusion's effect is communicated to the listener, and the imagination with which the illusion is musically adapted. In this chapter, it is shown how these evaluations impacted upon my approach to illusion and the ways in which I as a result felt that current compositional adaptations might be improved. In the third chapter, the submitted pieces are analysed and assessed by the standards formulated in the second chapter. The ways in which the works were crafted are explained, along with the research intentions that I was attempting to enact by crafting the pieces in such a way. The lessons I learned from the compositional process of each piece is also documented in this chapter. In the fourth and final chapter, the whole research enterprise is contextualised and evaluated. My research goals are reviewed and the evolution of my changing approach to compositional illusion is illustrated. It is my hope that this thesis may shine a light on some of the curiosities which live in the loopholes of our perceptual faculties; share methods of adapting psychoacoustic illusions into compositional contexts; draw previously undrawn parallels between the practises of performance magic and music; and inspire wonder and awe in the amazing phenomena which constantly surround us.

There was little concern in seventeenth-century England for establishing a canonical list of composers of 'old' music. Yet this ambivalence to England's musical past did not go unnoticed by a small number of musicians and antiquarians, scattered over decades, who feared that without receiving the preservation it deserved, early music and its composers would slip irretrievably into oblivion. This thesis identifies those resolute scholars and places them in the context of their roles in the development of English musical antiquarianism during the Long Eighteenth Century, ranging over a period from Elias Ashmole, the seventeenth-century collector and founder of the Ashmolean Museum, to the eighteenth-century musical antiquarian, Johann Christoph Pepusch and the Academy of Ancient Music. These exemplars did not work in isolation, however, but were influenced by the religio-political and sociological undercurrents that prevailed during their times. Some of these underlying trends were less veiled, as with the general need for compliance within the strictures of a contemporary political climate. In contrast, others were quite subtle, notably, the influences on musical antiquarian thought deriving from the ancient Hermetic traditions of alchemy, Rosicrucianism, and Freemasonry. This thesis brings together those disparate undercurrents, personalities and events, and demonstrates that the ultimate result of this mosaic of collective forces was that the Academy's musical antiquarians were able to attain their primary objective of securing the acceptance of 'old' music alongside 'new' music into repertoire. Moreover, while the Academy did not succeed in its secondary objective of preparing an inventory of 'best masters', due to shifting priorities during its seventy-six-year existence, it nonetheless provided sufficient data through its surviving concert programmes to complete its objective in this thesis of preparing the first canonical list of 'best masters' of classical music in England. As a result of the pioneering contribution of these early English musical antiquarians, the avenue was prepared for future music historiographers to craft their respective period canons of composers and their quintessential masterpieces that now represent the classics of Western art music.

Ownership, empowerment and transformation are three concepts that have gained prominence in the discourse of community music. As a collective group of concepts, they represent a myriad of interpretations, possibilities and influences. Community musicians and music organisations now rely on using these three concepts in evaluation reports to demonstrate the value and impact of their work to funders and policymakers. However, as buzzwords, their usage has become interchangeable, and the meaning and knowledge of how they manifest in practice have become unclear. This research aims to critically explore the relationship between community music and cultural policy by examining how ownership, empowerment and transformation are used in community music discourse. A range of research methods are employed to undertake this study. Firstly, conceptual analysis, where I develop three conceptual lenses, language, practice, and policy, to explore how the use of these three concepts has changed and developed in alignment with social and cultural policy agendas and the fundamental theories underpinning each of these domains. Secondly, through focus groups, interviews and participatory observations, a case study design helps reveal how community musicians operationalise these concepts. In conclusion, this research provides a lens through which to explore the discourse of community music and its interconnection with cultural policy, examining the effects that policies have on the language and practices of community musicians and how they recognise the impact and value of their work.

Due to his bi-cultural life, the Korean-German composer Isang Yun (1917-1995) developed musical insights from the East and West. This thesis aims to discover how he expanded his control of Western avant-garde techniques, which created a unique combination with an explicitly Korean tradition. In particular, the focus will be on how his compositional contexts relate to musical hybridity in East and West encounters. Moreover, specific attention will also be paid to whether Yun's musical insights reflect political symbolisation. The research questions cover an understanding of Yun's compositional procedure Hauptton as a product of musical hybridity between East-West encounters and the significance of PCS 3-3 within the technique. The thesis consists of six chapters, together with a conclusion. Chapter 1 is an extended introduction and contains a review of previous literature on Yun, indicating relevant sources about his life and works. The chapter also evaluates the terminology related to East-West encounters, including musical hybridity, and introduces the analytical methods employed. Chapter 2 considers elements from the two poles that influenced his musical insights, the East and West. These influences are handled separately and discussed in the two sections of the chapter. Chapters 3-6 are integrated with an analysis of the specific compositional procedures in Yun's works. The first Hauptton of a piece is set as the basis of pitch-class set analysis. Yun's Eastern elements are suitable for paradigmatic analysis. Each chapter contains specific research questions within the overall enquiry. Chapter 3 focuses on why Yun's expression of Confucian court music in the Western avant-garde language fits into the musical hybridity of Réak (1966). Chapter 4 reveals how his instrumentation and the integral serialism of Images (1968) could be understood as musical hybridity. Chapter 5 investigates such hybridity through the stylistic aspects of Western influence in the Opera Sim Tjong (1971/2), whose libretto was written based on a tale from a Korean legend. Chapter 6 considers the political symbolisation of the two cello pieces, the concerto (1975/6) and Nore (1964) and whether political symbolisation reflects a type of musical hybridity. The conclusion returns to the title of the thesis concerning how Yun's compositional contexts could be implied as musical hybridity.

This PhD research unpacks the conditions that enable community musical theatre to constitute a form of artistic activism, encompassing organisational dynamics, creative processes, and features of live performance. Bringing together theory from the fields of community music, applied theatre and political performance, the research presents a case study of Sex Worker's Opera (SWO). SWO is a sex worker-led community musical theatre project that aims to tackle misrepresentations of sex workers, challenge stigma and advocate for the decriminalisation of sex work through the collaboratively-made performance, Sex Worker's Opera. The candidate draws on performance analysis, participant observation and interview data gathered through music elicitation sessions with directors and members of SWO to explore three main research questions. Firstly, how did Sex Worker's Opera provide a platform for marginalised artists (SWO's members and directors) to engage with and advance the activist goals of the sex work community? Secondly, what were the structures and practices required to support the process of making Sex Worker's Opera? And, thirdly and more generally, what are the social impacts of SWO? The research shows that, within community musical theatre performance, songs provide a platform for marginalised groups who may not otherwise be heard to communicate pertinent political messages. Furthermore, dramaturgy can support the formation of emotional connections between performers and audiences, instilling a sense of moral and political responsibility that encourages allyship. It also demonstrates the necessity of prioritising values associated with cultural democracy and care ethics in creative and organisational practice, showing that artistic activism encompasses personal benefits when these are in place. Overall, it highlights the inextricability of affects and effects in assessments of the social impact of community musical theatre projects, and socially-engaged performance more broadly, and challenges assumptions about who is impacted by this work. As one of very few studies into community musical theatre, this thesis offers a valuable point of reference for future interdisciplinary research. Moreover, it demonstrates the need to conceive of 'social impact' as something that might be seen in subtle affects, as well as quantifiable effects. In all, the thesis suggests that more should be made of the political potential of community musical theatre as a vehicle for community-led advocacy, calling for greater attention to the sustainable model of activism that grassroots community arts projects could provide and the ways in which they might complement other forms of political action.

This research describes a compositional practice informed by a respiratory philosophy. Following a range of thinkers including Henri Bergson (1965), Luce Irigaray (1999), Tim Ingold (2015) Karen Barad (2003), and Emanuele Coccia (2018) the project proposes a perspective that emphasizes our immersion in the air and a relationship of attentiveness and openness to the world. The project marks a shift of emphasis, away from the primacy of the aesthetic concerns of the human composer, towards an eco-systemic model that recognizes compositional agency as distributed. An eco-systemic, or situated, compositional practice is one that enables processes of composition to emerge through dialogue with materials, environments, and bodies. Such practices move beyond binary notions of human 'subjects' and material 'objects' to embrace relational approaches to composition. These relational exchanges take place iteratively creating flows of agency. I develop the idea of Respiratory Aesthetics through awareness of these flows, and the intention to follow and work with them.

In this thesis and accompanying portfolio, I show how my compositional practice proposes the disembodied speaking voice as musical material that yields new compositional avenues. Unlike the singing voice, the speaking voice has an ambiguous connection to music. Does it suggest, even demand new musical material and forms, which deviate from dialectical and teleological musical structures? When this voice is no longer physical, but rather disembodied, does this compound the ambiguity? I explore three divergent approaches to selecting, generating, and structuring text for disembodied speaking voices, which unmoor the voice from the musical paradigms of literary, lyrical, and poetic texts; and from the linear narratives typically associated with music. My practice eschews these, investigating found text and lists; verbatim and paraphrased documentary material; and stream-of-consciousness free-writing; all of which might break with narrative or semantic meaning. The deployment of these texts calls into question the function of the disembodied voice. I thus trace an evolving view of the perception of the voice as a cinematic narrator, a radiophonic character, an apparently supernatural presence, an audio caption for the accompanying music, a material sonic object, or as the reflexive presence of the composer themselves. This leads towards a notion of sonic self-portrait in my most recent work, brought about through specific kinds of uses of recordings of my own voice. These approaches are preceded and contextualised by a framework in which I consider extra-musical models and theories from cinema and artists' film, radiophonic work and the everyday sphere of vox ex machina automated voices, with reference to a wide range of analogous and contrasting approaches in works by other composers and sound artists. A second layer of contextualisation is provided by my proposal of a categorisation of types of macro- and micro-structural relationships between speaking voices and music. These range from an entirely separate, discrete presentation of voice and musical material to scenarios in which the voice alone is presented as musical material.

This thesis shares insights into the re-consideration of keyboard arrangements of instrumental music in early eighteenth-century England. It assesses the extent to which these arrangements can be considered as a genre, or a transition of genres ('genre-flow') with new and previously unrevealed importance, by analysing both the generic and formal construction of these works, and the idiomatic adaptations during the arranging procedure. It also examines whether there existed a different, if not completely neglected, keyboard school at that time with a different basic touch, and whether the overture in the so-called 'Handelian-era' England (precisely, London), should be re-considered as a new genre. The result of such analyses and re-consideration leads to the construction of new repertoire for modern-day keyboardists. The pieces chosen for discussion are drawn from my own PhD graduating recital and demonstrate the great potential of this repertoire. This study also investigates articulation and ornamentation - in both the instrumental originals and the resulting keyboard arrangements - to restore a historical consensus of the common style among idioms and instruments. This is carried out in order to encourage modern-day instrumentalists to re-consider both the concept and the actual practice of their own performances. In relation to this, I naturally draw on my own extensive experience as a performer of this repertoire, including the graduating recital. Finally, this study offers suggestions for both future performance and research of this repertoire, and therefore are of equal benefit to performers and musicologists.

This portfolio comprises compositions utilising new score-reading technologies. The research primarily investigates the role that technology can play in the performance and composition of polytemporal music, with a particular focus on tempo canon. This led to the development of two new software applications: a score viewer and a composition environment. The commentary discusses the impact that these tools have had on my work, while also touching on broader technical, aesthetic and philosophical themes. These include considerations of time, the balance of freedom and control, and the impact of technology on creative work.

Following the 1834 inauguration of the William Hill organ in Birmingham Town Hall, England saw growth in the installation of organs in public buildings. These monuments to civic pride and ambition were constructed not just to entertain, but to improve, as local authorities sought to elevate the tastes and morals of their working-class population by providing affordable organ recitals as an alternative to other forms of leisure. This tradition, emerging amid the socio-cultural and musical tensions of the first half of the nineteenth century, was the product of a complex web of influences, rooted in the wider rational recreation movement, a secular organ tradition which had been evolving since the seventeenth century, middle-class mistrust of working-class leisure and the belief in the suggestive power of music. In this thesis, I have examined the origins of this tradition and its development in England between 1834 and 1901 by looking at the wider trends that led to its conception, and the ways in which it manifested itself in four case study towns: Kidderminster, Worcester, Wednesbury and West Bromwich. In each of these town, civic halls and organs were constructed and organists appointed, with the aim of producing regular, moral recitals for a working-class audience, with varying outcomes. The results of this tradition were not the broad moralising effect that its proponents intended, and its duration was limited by the march of technology and changing attitudes following the turn of the century. Instead, its lasting effects were a contribution to the democratisation of music and concert culture, to English organ-building and organ repertoire, and the construction of a large number of instruments throughout the country.

This project, a study in applied aesthetics in music, examines my personal creative process of arranging J.S. Bach's D Minor Violin Partita BWV 1004 for 7-string guitar. In a departure from existing adaptations of this work, I use rhetoric, a prevalent mode of organizing music and thought at the time of the partita's composition, as a creative foil in crafting an approach. Within a rhetorical framework, I use arrangements by Bach to inform my process and practice. I make case studies to probe and make explicit elements of the suites, and explore how my understanding of the construction of BWV 1004 guides my hand as an arranger. To inform my arrangement of BWV 1004, I analyse, arrange, and perform the Suites BWV 995 in G Minor, BWV 996 in E Minor, and BWV 1006a in E major for and on 7-string guitar. I arrange the Allemande from English Suite BWV 807 in A Minor for violin. I work to parse the rhetoric of BWV 1004, and finally share elements of the iterative process of arranging it.

By the early nineteenth century, the 'madwoman' had become a prominent cultural figure, featuring in fine art, literature, and stage works, and became a particular fascination for Italian operatic composers, librettists and audiences alike. Sir Walter Scott's The Bride of Lammermoor (1819), and its successive Italian operatic adaptations (1829-1835), thus fanned the flames of this obsession. While interest in the archetypal madwoman continued to grow culturally, so too did proliferation of, and the reading publics' interest in descriptions and images of madness in medical literature and its popular dissemination. This interdisciplinary thesis compares the cultural and operatic representation of female madness to pertinent, popular nineteenth-century medical literature. It will comparatively analyse the representation of female madness in historical descriptions (mostly of hysteria, insanity and monomania) with Sir Walter Scott's novel The Bride of Lammermoor (1819) and its Italian operatic adaptations: Le nozze di Lammermoor (Paris, 1829) by composer Michele Carafa and librettist Giuseppe Luigi Balocchi; La fidanzata di Lammermoor (Trieste, 1831) by Luigi Rieschi and Calisto Bassi; La fidanzata di Lammermoor (Padua, 1834) by Alberto Mazzucato and Pietro Beltrame, and Lucia di Lammermoor (Naples, 1835) by Gaetano Donizetti and Salvadore Cammarano. Most previous studies on nineteenth-century Italian opera, and Lucia di Lammermoor specifically, have focussed on the musical representation of madness, and do not consider medical literature of the period. This project thus aims to remedy this position by combining the study of literature, theatre and opera, of detailed libretto and score study, with the analysis of medical texts and photographic iconographies on madness. In doing so, it aims to determine to what extent Italian operatic mad scenes - in embodying social and cultural ideas on madness - reflected and propagated popular medical ideas in the nineteenth century; and how far the visual representation of madness within opera and popular culture reciprocally influenced that in popular medical literature and photography. In short, I aim to use these cultural products and medical literature to sensitively elucidate the popular notions surrounding female madness in the early modern period and nineteenth century.

This thesis was written to accompany a portfolio of stereophonic and multi-channel music compositions written between 2011-2020. The music draws on influences from a wide range of genres and experiments with musical boundaries. The thesis explores the importance of play and improvisation in the composition process with an emphasis on noise and detritus as important parts of the sound palette. Aim: to create a portfolio of acousmatic and mixed compositions for stereophonic and multichannel formats. In making this portfolio I intend to use a wide range of musical and non-musical sources. I will draw influences from both acousmatic and popular music genres in original compositions. The work will form a portfolio exploring music and the ambiguity of musical boundaries. I will also be using detritus and noise and considering some of the implications associated with these types of sounds. The work will also focus on the use of play and improvisation in music creation.

The relationship between people and digital processors in electronic music performance has been a widely discussed topic since the first musical applications of microprocessors at the end of the 70s by the League of Automatic Music Composers. In this dissertation I make the point that this relationship is too often reduced to the role of machine agency with problematic consequences for new applications of micro and nano processors in performance: critical misunderstandings in the chain of mediations between people and machine stem from the lack of understanding of human actors, especially regarding their intuitive processes, and not from the assessment of machine behaviour. Starting from Herbert Simon's theory of bounded rationality, the discussion highlights how this faulty assessment was among the major causes of catastrophic outcomes of recent social phenomena involving new technology. Electronic music performance is also a social phenomenon that falls in this category. To make this point, I analyse two case studies closely related to improvisation that, contrary to more common approaches, successfully integrated new media displaying more attentiveness to human intuitive processes, as they are known today according to modern neuropsychology: the Berlin's Echtzeitmusik and the New London Silence. Once the narrative of the relationship between people and machines shifts to take into account modern notions of intuition and human and nonhuman agency, we open the field for alternative approaches to integrate micro and nano processors in electronic music performance. All the discourse that follows explores these alternative approaches proposing standpoints of observation that draw from relational aesthetics and actor-network theory. The thesis ends with the presentation of a portfolio of relational works exploring the aesthetic of the relationships among a broad variety of actors, providing practice-led examples to look for new narratives to answer the question: how do the relationships between human and nonhuman actors contribute meaningfully to the aesthetic of electronic music performance?

This thesis examines the multitude of factors involved in the development of contrasting experiences of worship, and particularly the nature and role of musical practices within worship, throughout the Reformation, until around 1642. Through the close study of the geographically adjacent yet highly contrasting regions of Bristol and Gloucestershire it challenges existing scholarly narratives surrounding changes in musical practices within worship throughout the Reformation by presenting a much more varied soundscape than hitherto expressed. It also nuances relationship - often polarised by modern historical and musicological scholarship - between certain musical practices and forms of religious identity, exposing the micropolitics that frequently informed such changes on the ground. Chapter One of the thesis seeks to identify many of the agents that influenced changes within practices of worship by thematically examining how financial and social factors, institutions, and people were all able to effect change. Chapters Two, Three, and Four examine how these various factors influenced musical practices within worship, focussing on the development of singing, organs, and bells within worship respectively. All four chapters draw heavily from a wide range of sources, including extant churchwardens' accounts, consistory court records, cathedral records, and records of civic institutions, to provide a detailed study into the development of experiences of worship throughout Reformation Bristol and Gloucestershire. Through the close examination of practices, this thesis will demonstrate how a whole host of agents were able to influence experiences of worship, either independently or interacting with a combination with other factors. It will also show the unique character of each church's soundscape of worship, illustrating the micropolitics involved in any change in musical practice. Whilst preferences for certain practices are certainly attributable to particular religious groups, the relationships between actual practices and identities were often more nuanced than hitherto recognised. As such, music within worship was, under the right conditions, often more flexible and durable than existing scholarship has suggested.

The submission consists of a portfolio of eight compositions and a written commentary upon the works. The compositions for various instrumentations were made during my studies in Birmingham between 2017 and 2020. The compositions demonstrate my attempts to explore different types and degrees of repetition and their role in creating various musical outcomes. Alongside this, the commentary details my contextual observations about the uses of repetition in a wide range of music, stretching back to the 18th century but concentrating especially on 20th century developments. The categories I gleaned from these observations have informed the way I developed various uses of repetition in the presented compositions. In addition, the use of repetition in my music also takes into account a number of connections with other disciplines including music psychology, visual art, and Deleuzian philosophical ideas.

Framing my research in the context of the close transcultural relationship between Brazil and Lebanon and the two countries' rich communal history of trade, migration and cultural exchange, in this thesis I reveal how multiple strands of sociomusical encounters have shaped the performance, practice and legacy of Brazilian music in Lebanon - particularly samba and bossa nova - and how these lesser-known stories and histories nuance our understanding of music and society in Beirut. Beginning with intercultural musical encounters between local Lebanese and visiting Brazilian musicians in the nightclubs and hotels of 'Golden Age' Beirut, I analyse the historical factors that have led to the development of an idiosyncratically Lebanese style of bossa nova, as exemplified by the bossa nova-inspired compositions and innovative arrangements of Ziad Rahbani. I demonstrate how this musical history complicates contemporary understandings of the 'cosmopolitan' nature of the pre-Civil War city, illuminates how bossa nova is intertwined with nostalgic discourses pertaining to this era, and contributes to notions of a 'hybrid' Lebanese cultural identity. Drawing upon ethnographic research undertaken in Beirut in 2017-19, in the second half of the thesis I show how the contemporary performance of Brazilian music has occupied a unique, ambivalent and sometimes contested space in the Lebanese musical milieu. I outline how sociopolitical anxieties regarding gender, ethnicity and 'race', alongside issues of cultural conservatism, exoticism and stereotyping, have shaped the production, performance and reception of Brazilian music and dance in Beirut, and reveal how these factors have created distinctive dynamics of tropicalisation in this context. Finally, I demonstrate how moments of crisis, discriminatory legislation and the chronic political and economic instability of postcolonial Lebanon have created a precarious environment for female, foreign performers in particular, resulting in a transient and fragile Brazilian sociomusical community in Beirut.

This thesis is the result of a practice-led research project that took place at the Victoria & Albert Museum from 2016 to 2019, under the auspices of a Collaborative Doctoral Partnership with the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. The work picks up the discussion about Historical Performance and authenticity as it stands at the beginning of the 21st century, and proposes a new model for the practice of playing a historical musical instrument, borrowing ideas from material culture studies and focusing on the instrument as an object central to musical experience, and suggesting a new model for creative interpretation called the expressive variable. This reframing becomes the jumping-off point for a series of three performance experiments conducted at the museum involving unaccompanied 17th-century viola da gamba music, each one devised to explore diverse relationships between listener, performer, repertoire, and space, and all three aiming to find ways of sharing the practice of music-making with museum audiences without putting on a traditional concert. The discussion of the performance experiments draws heavily from the techniques of autoethnography, combining analyses of recordings and field notes with reflective writing relating to the author's personal, psychological, and cultural history. The outcomes of these analyses focus themselves into four main sections: risk, time, presence, and agency. Over the course of the intertwined examination of these and other emergent topics, the writing becomes an increasingly self-reflective attempt to understand the friction between the author's self and the musical practice. The original PhD thesis was submitted as a website, with fifty multimedia examples embedded in the text, in addition to self-referential hyperlinks within the work. It is the author's intention to permanently host that more ideal version of the thesis at http://www.liambyrne.net/PWTVDG (password: orlandogibbons). However, for library archival purposes, or in the event that the online version somehow ceases to exist, this current offline version is a collection of the nine pages of the website as nine rich-text PDF files. Some hyperlinks (only to external sources) and images have been retained in the body of this text, but the audio and video multimedia examples have been moved to a supplemental folder within this ZIP archive. At those points in the text where an audio or video file would have been embedded, the reader will find a bold, red text with an old-fashioned Example Number, which refers to a media file in the supplemental folder. The page numbers of the PDF files should serve as page numbers for reference purposes. The author also apologizes for the use of endnotes, but they were an irreversible artifact of the footnote system used in the original website version of the thesis.

Throughout European and Christian history, the act of representing female figures in a creative context has been largely undertaken by men. My exploration indicates that female figures are often underrepresented or misrepresented throughout history with popular views today still heavily influenced by a patriarchal society. This PhD aims to explore the representation of female figures, as well as female health and social issues from my perspective as a woman, through a portfolio of music compositions. I have presented two pieces exploring each figure, each piece offers a different perspective. Figures examined include Mary, the mother of Jesus; Mary Magdalene and Eve from the Bible; Kassiani, a Byzantine poet, composer and hymnographer; as well as Blodeuwedd, Arianrhod and Branwen from The Mabinogi (Welsh Folklore stories). One piece in each pair aims to explore the traditional presentation of these characters, which involves accepting male ideas. The other piece then takes on one of the two forms. The piece either reimagines the story from my own perspective and lived experiences as a woman, alternatively, I consider research done whilst writing the piece. In these cases, the research suggests that the initial representation is incorrect. More recent works in the portfolio explore topics that are taboo, such as maternal mental health and disability, chronic pain or illness. These topics are becoming more frequently discussed in the media, however, are still seldom discussed in general discourse. This PhD also examines my own compositional practice and its development, my use of ciphers and modes (amongst other technical issues), addressing how they have changed through this process. I explored how I use these devices to aid the programmatic elements of my music, as well as the development from instrumental programmatic music to instrumental music which includes text.

An over-reliance on 19th and early 20th-century Western art music canons and performance traditions has resulted in continued reinforcement of the notion that only white (usually male) musicians have made substantial contributions to the field in Britain until recent decades. This research explores the Afro-British presence in Western art music, focusing on compositions and performances before the 1970s. Through curation, I examine how the erasure of Afro-British stories in British classical music settings has impacted on modern-day music programming. Established musicological and Practice-as-Research methodologies such as those presented by Christopher Small and Robin Nelson perpetuate these systematic exclusions through assumptions about knowledge gathering, construction, and availability. With reference to several interdisciplinary theories, I explore how diversification of repertoire can be facilitated in different musical settings. Alongside this, I identify ways in which counter-storytelling can locate and fill gaps created by dominant discourses in Western classical music among students, performers, and audiences to reveal alternative performance and listening models away from established hegemonic norms.

Multi Pitch Estimation (MPE) is a challenging problem in the field of Music Information Retrieval (MIR). In recent literature in particular, it has been approached with Machine Learning (ML) methods, which are largely opaque, hard to interpret, and often difficult to reproduce from just the information provided in the literature. This Thesis presents a model for pitch detection that reduces the problem of MPE to that of distinguishing between false fundamentals (⊗) and their real counterparts. Initially the model is explored from a discrete viewpoint-one that is generally understudied in the field-before incorporating the notion of intensity and assigning Real values to tones. It further provides an in depth characterisation of precisely the ways in which these so-called edge cases can occur, looking in particular at the notion of 'basic' edge cases-ones in which the constituent parts are satisfied precisely once. From there, their occurrence is reduced to eight basic edge types (and a ninth type, which is proved to be the only irreducible non-basic type). The results of analysing simulated data on the model are then presented, highlighting the prevalence of the various types with respect to the number of simultaneous fundamentals. In addition, some insight into the use of the model on real data is given, alongside evaluation of a number of simple algorithms utilising the acquired knowledge of edge cases. Finally, this Thesis presents a range of logical future additions and directions for research, including the possibility of adopting a similar approach for other data-not necessarily musical audio.

This submission, comprising a portfolio of four new musical works with commentary, explores musical narrativity, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of DMus in Composition. The research was principally conducted through creative practice, as embodied in the scores and recordings, following established models of Practice as Research (PaR) across the creative arts. However, given that entirely self-evident examples of innovative creative practice are considered rare (Nelson 2013, 19), the purpose and aims of the written element are to illuminate the research process and facilitate an interplay (rather than segregation) of theory and practice. The documentation follows a largely "self-narrative" approach (Spry 2001, 710), with the aim of capturing the "ephemeral aspects of the creative process-which are precisely the kinds of knowledge that only creative practitioners can provide" (Leedham and Scheuregger 2018, 4). As such, the submission as a whole is concerned not only with storytelling through composition, but at the same time, the stories that we, as composers, tell about the act of composing itself.

This artistic practice research project explores re-introducing improvisation to Western classical performance practice as a musician (cellist and ensemble partner/leader). Improvisation was part of concert culture and performers' skill sets until early 20th century. Historical accounts as well as recent studies indicate that improvisatory elements in the programme may contribute specifically towards the audiences' experience of enhanced emotional engagement during the concert. The investigation follows four concert cycles of artistic practice of the researcher, who seeks to gain solo and chamber music improvisation techniques (both related to and independent of repertoire), conduct ensemble improvisation rehearsals, design concerts with an improvisatory approach and reflect on interactions with audiences after each concert. Data is collected through use of reflective diary, video recordings, measurement of sound parameters, questionnaires, a focus group, and interviews. The performer's empirical experiences and findings from audience research components are reflected upon in an autoethnographic, narrative frame, and interrogated to better understand the (1) rehearsal and planning processes that enable improvisatory elements to return to Western classical concert experience and (2) the emotional experience and type of engagement that occur throughout the concert experience for both performer and audience members. This motivation informed the development of a concert model, in which the performer designs and presents a program of solo and chamber music repertoire and improvisations, as well as engages in spontaneous exchange with audience throughout the concert (including improvisations based on audience suggestions). In designing concerts, inspiration was drawn from historical concert culture, where elements of risk-taking, spontaneity and audience involvement (such as proposing themes for fantasies) were customary. The research identified features of ensemble improvisation, such as empathy, emergence, mutual engagement and collaborative creativity, that became mirrored in audience's responses, generating higher levels of emotional engagement, empathy, inclusivity, and a participatory, co-creative experience. Similarly, the performer's experience of highest risk-taking and moments of flow often corresponded with audience's experience of most emotionally engaging moments of the concert, regardless of ensemble size, program, event, and audience. Examining interactions between all involved during the concert revealed that performer-audience impulse exchange occurred on multiple levels of awareness and seemed to build upon each other, resulting in particularly strong experiences of both performer and audience's engagement.

Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) was one of the leading figures of his time in the fields of piano performance, editing, and composition. He was an influential teacher and advocate for young performers and composers, and he left an indelible mark on twentieth-century musical life. This thesis provides the first detailed account of Busoni's editing and performance of Bach. Through an in-depth analysis of his Bach editions and related sources, including essays, archival material, recordings, and transcriptions, I show how Busoni's contributions to the understanding and performance of Bach's keyboard music are particularly rich and thought-provoking. Recently published material discussed in Chapter 1 (Why Busoni?) reveals Busoni to have been a conscientious editor whose role in his interpretative editions was that of a mentor rather than a stern teacher. Contextual evidence demonstrates that his work was influential for many of his peers and successors, which further consolidates Busoni's position in the history of Bach piano playing. Special attention is given in Chapter 2 (Reading Busoni) to Busoni's early interpretative editions of Bach for Breitkopf & Härtel: the Inventions and Sinfonias were intended as a 'preparatory school', while Busoni regarded his edition of the First Book of the Well-tempered Clavier as his 'testament' for pianists. These editions constitute part of what Busoni referred to as his 'Beiträge zu einer Hochschule des Clavierspiels' ('Contributions to an Advanced School of Piano Playing'). Close reading of the musical indications and annotations in Busoni's editions reveals how his playing emphasised the compositional structure of the music through a variety of means including subtle use of tempo flexibility. Examples will be given of peers and successors taking inspiration from Busoni and developing aspects found in his editions. Busoni's attitude towards the early acoustic recording process, as revealed in correspondence with his English management agency, provides the context for an analysis of the playing style captured on his only surviving acoustic recording of Bach in Chapter 3 (Listening to Busoni). This analytical work forms the basis for an auto-ethnographical exploration of my past and present approaches to the piano performance of Bach and how Busoni's output is informing aspects of my continuing practice in Chapter 4 (Playing with Busoni). This process is documented in annotated musical scores. I will discuss my Doctoral recital and additional recordings in Chapter 5 (Recital and Recordings). The outcomes of this research constitute both a report of Busoni's editorial approach to Bach placed within a broader historical and musicological context, and an account of the development of my own interpretation of Bach's keyboard music after consulting Busoni's editions. Finally, the accompanying recordings aim to bring to life those subtleties of musical notation discussed in this thesis.

In this thesis I critically investigate notations for saxophone I have produced (2018- 2020), that contribute to the preparatory processes and outcomes which accompany a solo, improvised practice. The aim of this focus is to contribute productively towards and create further awareness of the practical milieu I participate within, whilst actively maintaining and providing new trajectories for my artistic practice. Recognising Jazz and Improvised Music as the musical context I seek to build upon, I introduce various theoretical viewpoints, in particular Tim Ingold's notion of Correspondence (1) and Shaun Gallagher's conceptual clarification of The Body Image and Schema (2), in order that a fuller understanding of some of the implications of this thesis are understood. Primarily, I argue for the importance of engaging with the 'unknown,' by which embodied processes co-exist and correspond with my tools of engagement, to facilitate artistic work without specific 'end-goals' and clearly delineated componentry. The analysis concerns itself with the introduction of five main works for saxophone, alongside the necessary consideration of my practice surrounding this research. Labtayt Sulci, Tin Paths, Shadow(s), For Two Hands and T-R all investigate different approaches to notation, improvisation and instrumentalism, in an attempt to reveal processual traits that accompany the work. I then filter the findings of the analysis through fields related to the practical and theoretical contexts I outlined in Chapter 1, focussing in particular upon the function of both Body Image and Body Schema in my improvised practice. 1 Tim Ingold, The Life of Lines (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2015), 154-155. 2 Shaun Gallagher, "Body Image and Body Schema: A Conceptual Clarification." The Journal of Mind and Behaviour 7, no. 2 (Autumn 1986), 541-554.

This research investigates the manipulation of time as a primary organising factor in musical composition. Through a series of compositions which exhibit and combine together various different ways in which musical time can be perceived, I aim to confront, interrogate, and in some cases subvert my own past tendencies in search of a music whose engagement with time is lively and multidimensional. The first chapter of this thesis considers the ways in which past composers and theorists have investigated and understood musical time, focussing in particular on ideas put forward by Gérard Grisey and Jonathan Kramer. The following four chapters detail the ways in which developments upon these ideas were generated by and implemented in my compositional output. Finally, the sixth chapter discusses the principal research outcomes which were arrived at over the course of this project.

This dissertation examines two works that I composed within a three-year period (2018 - 2021) through the lens of non-duality. The two works, Violin Concerto No. 1 and Violin Concerto No. 2: with might and main, are sizeable at approximately twenty-seven and twenty-five minutes in duration, respectively, and both were composed during a very productive period. Non-dualistic thinking is a core precept of Buddhist philosophy which offers a path towards seeing the interconnectivity and interdependence of all phenomena. Examining these two concerti from a non-dualistic perspective offers insight into issues of culture and identity, as well as the creative processes that are shaped by them. A central aim of this dissertation is to study how lived experiences and knowledge, steeped in two seemingly disparate musical cultures, those of the Arab Near East and Western concert music, arise from a series of causes and conditions, and influence the creation of these two concerti. The emphasis is not on hybridity, which tends to cast both sides in a light of 'otherness', but on recognizing a holistic view of these two musical traditions and the resultant two concerti. In pursuing this study, the central topic that emerged was that a nondualistic way of experiencing these two traditions reveals a connectivity between them that allows for a musical expression that sees and hears them as one. Though an analysis of each work will be provided, the analytical focus will be on ideas and practices that connect directly to non-dualistic thinking, and not a 'bar-by-bar' analysis of each concerto.

This dissertation examines the effects of copyright law on traditional music of the marginalised communities. Traditional music of the marginalised communities has been exploited by music collectors from the dominant group, historically and contemporarily. The exploitation is often justified and legalised by the proposition that traditional music is unprotectable under copyright law, which can be described as a 'hierarchy of protection.' Further, traditional music of the marginalised communities is often perceived as inferior to classical or art music of the dominant groups, which can be described as a 'hierarchy of culture.' This dissertation aims to examine the role of copyright law in the exploitation of traditional music and in shaping the cultural perception or cultural status of traditional music. This is accomplished through a cross analysis of publishing processes and legal treatments of traditional music. Four sub-questions are examined to answer the main research question: 1) whether traditional music can be protected as musical works under three copyright requirements, originality, authorship, and fixation; 2) whether these copyright requirements are socio-cultural neutral or informed by broader industrial and cultural contexts, thus embedding cultural biases towards traditional music; 3) how traditional music was processed in music publishing and what were the relative legal consequences of these processes; 4) whether and how the compound of music publishing and copyright law influences the cultural perception of traditional music. This cross analysis facilitates the dissertation's original contributions, including challenging the view that traditional music is unprotectable under copyright law. Theoretical patterns emerge from analysing the dynamic interaction between the 'hierarchy of protection' and the 'hierarchy of culture.' That is, copyright law has implemented the 'hierarchy of protection' in the legal field, thus constructing and reinforcing the 'hierarchy of culture' in the music field. The contributions underpin the implications of the dissertation: redressing the 'hierarchy' effect is essential for properly protecting traditional music against exploitation, and in the broader sense, for promoting socio-cultural equality between the dominant group and the marginalised communities.

As a popular music genre and significant Western cultural export, jazz music arrived in China during the 1920s. However, previous research has not paid sufficient critical attention to China's experience of jazz music prior to the 1980s, and there is still a paucity of research into jazz education in China. I will analyse the current state of jazz education in mainland China and the underlying processes and history of its development. The work is significant both in terms of providing new insights into musical and cultural life in mainland China, but also more widely in considering the international transmission of music and music education into different cultures. This research aims to adopt a two-stage approach, rereading the origins and development of jazz and jazz education in China since the 1920s through the optic of history, geography and cultural policy, before using this foundation to reread modern Chinese jazz education. My investigation will employ a combination of fieldwork, involving data collection and analysis of interviews I have conducted, observations, and questionnaires, as well as an examination of Chinese and foreign literature since the 1980s. The research will also be the first to periodise contemporary jazz education in China, building an empirical and methodological framework which may be of benefit to future scholars investigating this area. The three stages include the starting point of contemporary jazz education in China (1978-1993); the period of rapid development of contemporary jazz education (1993-2005); and the mature period of jazz education (2005-2020).

'Gangsta Rap: A Practice-led Autoethnographic Study in the Audiovisual Arts' is formed from the original perspective, and combined role of an academic, artist, designer and practising musician. The study is based on the unique combination of the author's lived experience and academic research which consolidates the limited international scholarship in the field and significantly extends this, thereby offering important new findings. The emergence of gangsta rap is one of the consequences from the loss of factories and jobs in America, the reduction of public investment in the poorer areas and the lack of support of workers' rights during the 1970s and 1980s in major American cities. As a music genre, it is mostly a product of black culture, although Latinos and other minorities have contributed to its development due to the similarities for these groups in living conditions and aspirations. As this music deals with issues of space and identity of poor working-class youth, it reached several countries in the world that were in a similar position to the USA. Minority youth in rap music has often been perceived as a danger by public institutions, including police and schools. In this doctoral study, the author questions this perception and, moreover, how excessive criticism and in some cases legal actions against rappers have limited their creative practice, undermined their freedom of speech, and criminalised their artistic outputs. Furthermore, the thesis questions what positive outcomes can come out of the production of gangsta rap music and if these outcomes justify its creation. Methodologically, this research undertakes an extensive comparison between the different theoretical works around gangsta rap, where different authors argue that gangsta rap can either promote negative attitudes towards police, women and traditional family values or promote racial harmony between listeners from all backgrounds as well as a platform to those in disadvantaged positions that are not usually heard. The historical context leads to the practice-led ethnographic research wherein the author uses himself as a case study to map the relationship between his childhood, living conditions and artistry. Finally, an extensive body of practical work by the author and artist in the arena of gangsta rap accompanies the thesis to showcase not just the final product (such as music videos, songs, and exhibitions), but also to reveal the tensions behind the artist's creative process. Based on the author's autoethnographic research, which consolidates the cited views of other artists and scholars, rap music inspired him to express his feelings, ideas and worldview where no other place permitted the discussion of such topics. Urban culture helped him to develop certain skills that later on in life allowed him to make friends, gain a job and, most importantly, accept who he is and where he comes from. The findings from the research conclude and propose that rap music is more a reaction to social issues, inequalities, or violence than the originator of these factors.

This PhD thesis is based on the exploration of the Hollywood film industry in view of scored music and the association between the latter and Middle Eastern music culture. It aims to determine how the music relates to the picture, what are the direct or implied associations with eastern music styles are and if they exist, to what extent these represent eastern physiognomies or a westernised model of perceived ethnic authenticity. Due to the vast amount of material available for researching and discussing, this study's angle focuses mainly on silent and science fiction cinema. The study explores these areas by presenting and discussing the lack of communication between the visual and eastern ethnic music implementation in view of scoring composition and instrumentation. It explores a number of films that relate to the issue, or associated subcategories of the main issue. It presents and discusses scoring segments in terms of music implementation and gathers information in view of the composing techniques used. Additionally, it demonstrates interrelating examples and approaches where this is relevant and draws conclusions in view of the original question considering Middle Eastern music. Collected information is then processed sculpting the following creative part. In order to test the hypothesis of audiovisual fluidity and relevance, it then demonstrates a number of originally composed music examples on how films can be scored in a controversial way, with an increased sense of authenticity in terms of ethnic instrumentation, harmonic progression and rhythmic structure, drawing parallel lines when necessary with the preliminary films' exploration outcomes. Naturally, this is always related to each film's corresponding visual, chosen for its appropriateness in terms of ethnic portraiture, insinuation or potentially dynamic experimentation. Considering the latter, Middle Eastern ethnic instrumentations artistically combine with the Western symphonic orchestra on numerous occasions and the results of this amalgamation are being discussed and evaluated accordingly. Additionally, in view of experimentation, there is an effort to unite the two previous angles (eastern ethnic and Western symphonic) with computer sound design procedures with the intention of constructing hybrid scores specifically for the science fiction genre. Thus the study explores, identifies and demonstrates the potential of ethnic instrumentation in a film genre in which the visual does not necessarily equate, or imply, an eastern scoring character. The end results of this study determine and discuss the observed lack of depth in view of eastern music character. Out of the composed scores' presentation and analysis, the research verifies the originality of this attempt focusing also in the associated physiognomies between the music and the visual. Furthermore it explores and presents the scoring potential in view of eastern ethnic instruments and sound design, especially in the directly related science fiction genre. Finally, the problematic nature of the outcome, as well as thoughts and concerns about the superficial use of eastern music in the Hollywood cinema, are being discussed under a variety of different angles including technology, social culture, film industry, politics, et. al.

This thesis seeks to advance our comprehension of musical ontology as it pertains to realism from a platonist vantagepoint. Similar to other areas of ontological inquiry, such as fictional and mathematical objects, musical ontology is a specific field in philosophy of art that disputes the categorical nature and identity of musical objects. Much like its fictional and mathematical counterparts, categorizing works of music has been amply discussed by realists. In order to advance our understanding in this field, I will examine the categorical nature of such objects and the consequences realists face upon application. My dissertation will be separated in two distinct parts: one developing and one applying my platonist account. The first three chapters develop a certain stripe of musical realism that has previously been unexplored in the literature. In order to achieve this aim, Chapter One lays out a taxonomy of ontologies that catalogs realists, non-realists (nominalism and anti-realism), and arealist accounts. Chapters Two and Three provide two realist accounts hitherto undiscussed in the taxonomy. What makes both accounts enticing to the musical realist is that they endorse a property theory of musical works, which stands in contrast to its popular cousin, type/token theory. In particular, Chapter Two unpacks the property theory from an aristotelian perspective, while Chapter Three does so from a platonist perspective. Chapter Three provides the account that I develop and endorse. The purpose of application-contained in the last three chapters-is meant to not only show my account's implications, but also exhibit how these can render the account advantageous. Chapter Four will explain how realists should approach and contemplate the role of the musical score. Chapter Five will provide a realist response to the role of artificial intelligence in musical composition, and Chapter Four will provide a realist's modest definition of music. My goal is to showcase my account's fruitfulness in these applications, as well as to demonstrate how it can facilitate further questions about the nature of musical works and the categories to which they belong.

Listening together-apart is a practice-research project exploring collaborative approaches to the conceptual and actual composition of sound with moving images. Through a portfolio of compositions spanning film, installation, publication, performance, music and sonic arts this thesis explores the notion of the sound-image; an agential entanglement of sound, image, artist, audience, and the matters to which each sound-image speaks. Theories of non-hierarchical, non-binary relation in cultural studies, sound and filmmaking are explored through collaborative projects realised with artists and community groups, using the indeterminacy of Open Works as a site for creative investigation into these matters. This written commentary outlines the theoretical framework for this study and documents the practical and conceptual approaches to each work included in the portfolio.

This thesis explores the history, repertoire and acoustical properties of the bassoon-form bass clarinet: arguably the first successful bass clarinet type. More than 80 such instruments have been found in museums. The emphasis throughout the thesis is on understanding the empirical evidence that exists in the surviving instruments and in the musical repertoire. The establishment of this form is traced through primary and secondary sources and the extant instruments. An improved typology of the bassoon-form type is presented, based upon the acoustic properties of its different variations: true bassoon-form, bassoon-form with left- hand keys, half-bassoon-form and ophicleide form. The early repertoire for the bass clarinet is reviewed. It is shown that bassoon-form instruments (1793 onwards) and straight-form instruments (1838 onwards) were both introduced in Art music and in military and civil bands, until c.1850. The straight form then became the instrument of choice for Art music, whilst variants of the bassoon-form continued in bands until c.1914 and were probably preferred for the latter role. The main original contribution made in this thesis is to the modelling and analysis of the acoustical resonances of a set of thirteen bass clarinets, selected to examine various stages in their history. It was possible to calculate the intonation and pitch of the instruments with careful dimensional measurements, without playing them. Verification of the modelling was obtained by experimental and playing tests on one well-preserved instrument; musical examples are provided to illustrate the accuracy of the modelling. The MatlabTM code and data files are provided to allow continuation of this work. Significant acoustical differences were found between the bassoon- and straight- form instruments, primarily on the value and regularity of the important cutoff frequency. This was traced to the constraints innate in the different designs and methods of construction of the instruments.

This practice-based research project explores the development of a compositional approach that begins with an interest in sonifying biological patterns. It utilises an emergent, exploratory methodology that draws on a variety of contexts-including acousmatic music, metaphor, psychedelics and electronica-which are combined through a portfolio consisting of six musical works. More specifically, the emergence of a sonic typology that involves experimentation, prior musical experience(s), and a revitalising process originating in reflections of biological patterns plays a central role in the development of the portfolio. It culminates in a multiscale approach to musical composition where strands of materials, ideas and techniques coalesce.

This thesis explores the musical culture of the "occupation state" in Japanese-occupied Beijing during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). While cultural production in support of resistance against the Japanese in wartime China is well explored and its memory propagated to boost the CCP's legitimacy, music composed and performed in support of the occupation state in Japanese-occupied China has largely been disregarded or dismissed. This thesis thus lies at the hitherto uncharted intersection of several areas of research, including wartime "collaboration", the cultural history of Japanese-occupied north China, the development of music in wartime China, and musical culture of occupation more broadly. What can we learn about the occupation state in north China through an analysis of the musical repertoires and performance practices it developed and appropriated, and how does accounting for the musical culture of the occupation state alter our understanding of musical culture in wartime China? To address these questions, I draw on a broad range of sources, including musical scores, performance programmes and campaign reports published in the occupation state's main news outlets, as well as archival material pertaining to the regime's propaganda policies, music textbooks, a private collection of wartime concert programmes, musicians' (auto)biographies and recordings. The first three chapters offer an overview of the occupation state, as well as its organization, ideologies and main campaigns in north China. They also provide a critical view of the historiography of music in twentieth century China, explaining the significance of this thesis as an intervention into dominant narratives, and a detailed account of the musical infrastructure in Japanese-occupied Beijing. The second part of the thesis offers a detailed musical analysis of the evolving musical repertoires and performance practices developed and appropriated by the regime with a particular focus on "new music". I also consider how the regime employed collective and individual gendered voices and the spatial aspects of sound. I show how the song commission and mass singing activities initiated by the occupation state, as well as local musical elites' concern for topical repertoire and voices, were surprisingly similar to musical developments in both pre-war China and in the non-occupied areas in wartime China. Such continuities and similarities draw into question long-standing narrative alignments between the aesthetic and moral judgement of musical culture in wartime China. I further show how musical repertoire and practice reflects changes and dissonances in the occupation state's relationship with its citizens and reveals the regime's attempts at mitigating the limitations of its territorial control, countering the normalization of the condition of occupation, and forging a distinctly local identity for itself through concert programme design. This analysis of the musical culture of the occupation state in north China thus contributes not only to our understanding of the cultural history of the occupation state in Japanese-occupied north China, but to broader discussions of musical culture in twentieth-century China and the role of music in shaping military occupations more broadly.

This dissertation proposes a method for harmonic analysis of Franz Liszt's late piano music, which is based on neo-Riemannian theory and on traditional Riemannian functional analysis. Based on the presence and strength of functional harmonic procedures in the works under discussion, their analytical investigations are separated into two parts. Part I focuses on ten pieces composed between 1874 and 1885, in which an overarching tonality and functional chord relations are still prevailing over non-functional chromaticism. A hybrid methodology is proposed for analysing such works - one that combines the strengths of functional analysis with the ability of mainstream neo-Riemannian theory to account for parsimonious transformations between chromatically related chords. A fuller picture of Liszt's sophisticated harmonic language is achieved as a result, accounting equally well for the more functionally diatonic and the more chromatic features of it. The term double syntax, derived from Richard Cohn, is used for Liszt's harmony, which combines diatonic functionality with non-functional chromaticism. Based on the different ways, in which the two types of harmonic syntax complement each other in this music four species of it are conceptualised. These are called functionally framed double syntax, simultaneous double syntax, successive double syntax and structurally differentiated double syntax. Each of these shows in its own way Liszt's music as a complex blend between the conventions of his past and his more original, idiosyncratic treatments of harmony. These features of his style have been considered a most important part of his compositional individuality to conceptualise and discuss at present. The broader purpose of part I is to offer some categories for discussing music with double-syntactic harmony and to put forward the neo-Riemannian Tonnetz in combination with functional chord labelling as a basis for analysing Liszt and other composers of the 'long' nineteenth century. Part II focuses solely on Liszt's more chromatic treatments of harmony in some of his most avant-garde late piano pieces, and offers analyses of over 20 works composed between 1875 and 1885. Neo-Riemannian theory is employed as the sole basis for discussing such highly chromatic repertoires. The ability of the Tonnetz to visualise chromatic transformations between a wide variety of triads and seventh chords is exploited to a certain extreme, with the main purpose of this analytical endeavour being to stretch the boundaries of what we can show in such geometrical pitch space with the most common visual tool of xviii this theory. Only in the context of Liszt's extensive uses of the augmented triad in some of his late pieces another visual tool - the Cube Dance - is used for visualising harmonic relationships. The strive to prove that in comparison to traditional modes of analysis the visual apparatus of neo-Riemannian theory can more easily and clearly reveal surface-level chromatic chord relations has been the main motivator for limiting the analytical inquiry to chromaticism and to this particular method. Without the grand ambition to show Liszt's late piano music in a completely new light, this study has been led by the aim to provide a wide picture of this composer's highly individualistic treatment of chromaticism and to put forward a comparatively simple neo-Riemannian methodology as a viable alternative to the more traditional theories for analysing similar repertoires.

Discourses in the popular music press and trade journals of the post-punk period often portray 'independence' as an ideological end-in-itself (rather than merely an economic necessity) and opposition to corporate major labels is represented in terms of attempts to disrupt prevailing power structures in the music industry. A paradigm is constructed of major vs. indie - of protagonists and antagonists - which is often reinforced in the rhetoric of musicians, music journalists and recording industry representatives. Independence is valourised and a connection is established between the conditions of the production and distribution of music, and its cultural value. Simultaneously, such discourses frequently cite an intrinsic opposition to the policies and political philosophy of the government of Margaret Thatcher, a resistance not only embodied in numerous anti-Thatcher songs and gestures, but in the organisational practices of the independent music sector and the emergence of an ideology of independence which emphasised collectivism and co-operation (as evinced by the formation of the Cartel, a UK-wide distribution network which linked independent labels with independent retailers). Nevertheless, closer observation of the relationship between Thatcherism and popular music culture suggests a more complementary relationship than is generally suggested. For example, The Enterprise Allowance Scheme an initiative instigated to support small businesses and help create the 'enterprise culture' Thatcherism demanded, proved invaluable to numerous start-up record labels during this period including three of the most successful and iconic: Creation, Earache and Warp. Could, therefore, the independent labels set up during this period be regarded as examples of classic Thatcherite entrepreneurship? Or rather can the collectivism of the independent sector be seen as a repudiation of core Thatcherite values? Similarly, a critical examination of narratives around independence exposes considerable ambiguities around the relationship between independents and majors and the simplistic dichotomy of the 'good' independent and 'bad' major is frequently contested in media discourses. Such narratives also play out with regards to the vital area of distribution, as a variety of independent distributors emerge to challenge the dominancy of major label distributors. Distribution has been historically controlled by the major labels and the attempt to challenge this dominance can be regarded as the defining feature of the independent popular music recording sector during the punk and postpunk period. Examining this underresearched area of the recording industry will shed significant light on; discourses around independence, the relationship between Thatcherism and independent popular music culture (collectivism vs. entrepreneurship) and attempts to establish a genuine alternative to the economic and industrial power of major labels. The larger implication of the study will be to consider the legacy of the independent popular music recording sector of the post-punk era and the extent to which the model of independent distribution which emerged remains important to independent music production in today's much-changed industry environment.

This doctoral research in composition focuses on representing and presenting the identity-forming process through a portfolio of musical compositions and its accompanying academic commentary. On the one hand, the Commentary serves to present a compositional process that involves sampling, reflecting, and updating my own identity. On the other hand, the Portfolio of Compositions represents creative outcomes from different stages of this dynamic process. The Portfolio consists of compositions for solo instrument (with or without electronics and visual components), solo vocalist with various mediums, small instrumental and vocal ensembles (up to six players, with or without electronics and interactive devices), and large ensemble (twelve players). After first introducing this research's personal and theoretical background, this Commentary then addresses the portfolio compositions in detail. The essential concept of 'identity sampling' is discussed first on a case-by-case basis: how a sample, such as stereotypical pentatonicism, or tonal language inflections, has been reflected upon in my portfolio compositions. During the discussion, several important concepts that address different musical aspects are introduced, such as the 'poetic space' for the organisation of materials; language pheno- and geno-song for analysing vocal identity; and the 'network of interaction', which recognises the dynamic relationship shared by the composer, performer(s), audience and even non-human objects in a performing space. Finally, the commentary ends with a discussion of two concluding projects, the first being a ninety-minute concert that reflects on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the second being a large ensemble work that strives to achieve structural coherence in a more considerable length of time. In conclusion, the research reveals a process of experiencing identity rather than seeking a definite and fixed answer.

The genre of music commonly referred to as art song often elicits emotionally charged responses in accounts of audience experiences. However, scholarship has largely neglected the object of inquiry where these responses and experiences materialise: the live art song event. The principal research task in this study is to investigate audience experience of live art song events in the UK. The audiences and events at the centre of this inquiry coalesce around the work of the art song promoter Oxford Lieder. Using a mixed method approach (questionnaire, diary methods and guided interviews), statistical and thematic analysis, and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, is applied to a dataset that utilises 82 individual participants' experiences of live art song events, including regular attendees and those experiencing live art song for the first time. To frame the findings of this inquiry, this study establishes the concept of complex interpretative song worlds: defined as a collection of interactions that audience members draw upon to construct their experience of live art song events, through a dynamic and multi-faceted interplay with the system of possibilities afforded by live art song environments. In this study, complex interpretative song world theorising takes place across three levels of audiencing: (1) Interactions with the live art song domain (the norms, behaviours, and conventions of live art song environments) are gathered under three themes. Collecting activity sees a desire for participants to scrutinise song objects, embrace familiar artists and repertoire, and adopt a connoisseur-like approach to knowledge acquisition. Connecting activity reveals a prized sense of close psycho-social resonance, which takes place between songs, performers, spaces and everyday experiences. Venerating activity foregrounds a view of songs as inviolable objects, where perceived changes to songs are deemed heretical by some, examined through the (re)introduction of sung English translations into the live art song corpus. (2) Interactions with live art song objects (the lexical and musical features that make up songs) reveal the ways audience members process words and music, and prioritise either, or both features during live art song events. The presentation of these materials in ways that blur senses (sights and sounds), and time (before, during, and after performances), are shown to be as additive to audience member conceptualisations of the nature of lexical-musical relationships as they are disruptive. (3) Interactions with live art song actors (performers, producers, and audiences) reveal processes of role formation at work, where vocal acts, non-vocal acts, and fixed and non-fixed traits complicate the way audience members derive impressions of performers. Art song's hybridity as a genre, which is not a dramatic form, yet 'not not' a dramatic form, reveals the imbricated way audience members construct identities of performers: as professional musicians; as human beings; and as inhabitants of roles defined textually through a song's poetic content. This interdisciplinary study draws predominantly on three overlapping areas of scholarship, and makes new contributions to knowledge in all three. For musicology, this inquiry develops deeper understandings of live art song objects to complement the hegemony of hermeneutic, musico-analytical and historiographical research that typifies much of the existing art song literature. For audience studies, these findings provide new audiencing insights, by examining an art form not yet analysed by empirical audience research methods, and one that simultaneously combines both words and music as a mode of expression. For translation theory, this inquiry responds to calls within the existing literature for more research to understand the reception of translation in music. This study also generates dividends outside of the academy, providing new insights for performers and promoters of art song to inform approaches to programming, presentation, production, marketing and audience development.

This commentary accompanies a portfolio of eleven fixed-media electroacoustic works, realised during full-time doctoral research at the university of Birmingham between October 2018 and October 2021. All works in the portfolio were composed using my own wildlife source recordings exclusively. An analytical discussion of the portfolio-the main body of the commentary-is set within a wider discourse, encompassing: research background and context; approaches to wildlife sound cataloguing and source selection; practical and theoretical methodologies; emergence of methodological symbiosis between field and studio practices; notes on listening space, work diversity and genre; and additional research interests. The commentary closes with some thoughts on future research. The main appendices to the commentary include: selected pre-doctoral works and wildlife recordings; technical/programme notes; source recordings by composition; Csound code; wildlife sound cataloguing materials; full-resolution plates; tabular piece overviews; and supplementary materials. These appendices are referenced throughout the discussion, with a view to providing as much context as possible on my working practice.

This thesis explores the restoration and cultivation of mutually constitutive relationships between technique and identity. I begin by establishing the framework of practice that will be used throughout the thesis, in which I define practice by the methodological conditions of open-endedness, repeatability, intuition, situatedness and autonomy. I critique the practices of classical vocal pedagogy, the field of my own training and one about which critical scholarship is distinctly lacking. I argue that these practices effect a violentseparation between technique and identity by means of the fetishisation of technique, ideologies of transcendence, structural whiteness and the reification that structures spaces of training and practice. I establish a theoretical framework, grounded in the work of Ben Spatz, for understanding the relationships between the repetition and sedimentation of technical knowledge and the always ongoing formation of identity, and explore the defetishisation of technique and the objects and practices in which it is encoded both in the university's practice-as-research context and in the work of two artists and collaborators, Ragnar Kjartansson and Monia Sander Haj-Mohammed. Grounded in an intertextual reading of philosophies of immanence, philosophical pragmatism and feminist epistemology, I articulate the notion of situational emergence in processes of technical development and explore the broader scope and significance of lifelong transformation through technique. With this basis, I give an account of the works in the portfolio, exploring methodologies of defetishisation and situated making, and highlighting the ways that forms emerge in and through durational processes that are always specifically situated in time and place.

Music undeniably evokes emotions, including peak-pleasurable emotions defined as strong and positive feelings, such as excitement. Researchers have taken a great interest in music-evoked emotions and their correlating brain activity, attempting to understand how, when, and why music is emotive. Previous researchers have suggested music structures which create and fulfil expectations are key to peak-pleasurable emotions and relating brain activity patterns. Research has also proposed that expectancy's effects on peak-pleasurable emotions and brain activity can be magnified by preceding feelings of tension (ITPRA; Huron, 2006). In this thesis, I further examined music structures, expectations, and tensions' influence on peak-pleasurable emotions and correlating brain activity, using understudied electronic dance music (EDM) motifs called break routines. EDM break routine structures consist of three segments: break down, build-up and drop passages. Particularly important are build-up passages, where acoustic features are gradually reintroduced and intensify to peak levels, which increases tension. Followed by drop passages, where songs return to their main grooves and fulfil listener expectations. This makes EDM break routine structures useful in assessing tension and expectancies influence on music-evoked emotions. In four experiments, I used EDM break routines, electroencephalography (EEG), and the circumplex model of emotions to investigate music structures effect on peak-pleasurable emotions and correlating brain activity. First, I established EDM break routines can induce peak-pleasurable emotions, such as excitement, and specific brain activity patterns across build-up and drop passages. Results suggested build-up passages intensified tension, as well as increased premotor cortex (PMC) and precuneus (PCUN) activity. Meanwhile, drop passages fulfilled expectations, inducing peak-pleasurable emotions, and correlating with greater middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) activity. Second, I demonstrated the extent break routine structures evoked peak-pleasurable emotions and correlating brain activity, by comparing EDM and analogue classical break routines, which shared similar structures but varied in acoustic features. Similar peak-pleasurable emotions and correlating PMC and MFG activity, suggests EDM and analogue classical break routine structures (of tension and expectancy) influence peak-pleasurable emotions and relating brain activity to a greater extent than other musical elements, such as acoustic features. My third study then examined tension levels during EDM break routines and its influence on music-evoked emotions. This showed that while tension increased within build-up passages before decreasing during expected drop passages, greater tension levels did not magnify peak-pleasurable emotions from fulfilled expectations. Lastly, I used transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to assess the PMC and MFG's causational influence on peak-pleasurable emotions. Findings suggested that PMC and MFG activity have an indirect cause on music-evoked emotions, mediated by the perception of EDM break routine structures, and consequently levels of expectancy and tension. Overall, these results clarified the extent music structures (which intensify tension prior to fulfilling expectations) alongside mediating PMC and MFG activity, can evoke peak-pleasurable emotions using EDM break routines.

This research develops a model of the 'gravitation' in Music. In the literature on the 'gravitational' properties of melody and harmony, two sub-metaphors are apparent: 'distance' and 'motion'. Gravitation and Music's 'gravitation' are, therefore, fundamentally separate categories. To benefit from the metaphor without equating the experience of the two, Music's 'gravitation' is designated as 'Gravitonicity'. The model is developed from three questions: 'What is Gravitonicity?'; 'How and to what extent is it possible to derive a model of Gravitonicity from the 'neutral level' (Nattiez, 1990, pp. 12)?' (e.g., music theory); and 'How does the listener construct the meaning (Nattiez's 'esthesic dimension') of Gravitonicity and to what extent can this lead to a subjective experience?'. Conceptual metaphor theory (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980; 1999) is used to argue that the 'distance' is metaphorically shaped by our embodied understanding of physical distance. Steve Larson (2012) uses the same approach to explain the 'motion' alongside musictheoretic explanations. Music-theoretic explanations of the 'distance' have been historically sporadic and with little consistency in approach. Addressing this lacuna, spectral analysis is undertaken in conjunction with Chord Scale Theory (as taught at Berklee College of Music) to reveal 'Gravi-Tone Series'' (GS'): specific mappings of twelve distance ('g') values onto all twelve pitch classes ('gravi-tones'). It is argued that the GS' are attributed by a four-quality psychological process entitled 'Gravi-Tone Series Filtering' (GSF). With a unifying perspective on all types of scales, harmony, and functionality, GSF potentially belongs to the general theory of music. John Shepherd and Peter Wicke's 'Semiological Model' (1997, pp. 173) is used to extrapolate meaning construction, illustrating how Gravitonicity may be negotiable for 'different individuals and in the same individual at different times (pp. 175). Finally, further details of the model are uncovered through its analytical application to the chord-melody jazz guitar repertoire.

The nineteenth century orchestral musician has usually been portrayed as an anonymous creature scraping together a subsistence from a patchwork of sources. This view is common in such secondary material as exists on the subject, but it is not supported by documentary evidence. This project re-evaluates the orchestral profession not as a low-status musical underclass but as an independent occupational group who were entrepreneurial and often wilfully independent of their employers. It is not a study of high artistic aspiration, but rather an account of a musical working class. Though it is customary to refer to orchestral playing as a profession, the thesis argues that it is better understood as a trade and that from that perspective it can be see as well-paid artisan labour. The 'long nineteenth century' would have been too large a period to encompass, particularly since the logical cut-off would have been not 1914 but 1928, when the addition of synchronised sound to cinema resulted in mass redundancies among orchestral players. Instead, a shorter period was chosen, one that was a time of dramatic expansion. Some estimates suggest a fivefold increase in the number of professional musicians in London. The choice of start and end dates was determined by three crises that illuminate this growth. In 1789, the King's Theatre was burned down. Documentary material generated by the ensuing crisis was a clear starting point from where it was possible to trace working practices, fees and names of the relatively small number of orchestral players working in London at that date. In 1829, the orchestra of the King's Theatre refused to sign a new, restrictive contract. The resulting dispute was extremely acrimonious and was widely reported and commented on. In 1861, a row between Covent Garden theatre and the Royal Philharmonic Society led to the latter losing its orchestra, an emergency which, though hurtful to the feelings of some, resulted in a hiatus of only a few days: players were in plentiful enough supply for another orchestra to be rapidly assembled. London music making was mercantile in structure and the fact that, even in the most elevated circles, there was nothing that corresponded to a full-time orchestral job. The late eighteenth century orchestral player was a general practitioner who often played several instruments. His Victorian counterpart was more likely to be a specialist and was very often trained in the army. The repertoire they played was different, and as opera and orchestral concerts became media of mass entertainment it was natural for playing styles and performance practices to change. There is little secondary material on this area. Research has been conducted by examination of diaries, newspaper reports and account books.

This PhD spans a significant journey of my development as a composer of vocal music, and explores how my approach to vocal writing has evolved. My own technical knowledge of the voice, as a professional singer, and the nature of performance, combined with compositional knowledge, has allowed for a refined quality of vocal composition that works intrinsically for the voice. The trajectory of this commentary follows three main categories of vocal composition; art song, including the role of the accompaniment and support for the voice; unaccompanied vocal writing; and lastly musical drama. In Chapter 1, I discuss my stylistic approach, influential composers and how my knowledge and background as a singer has moulded my vocal writing. Chapter 2 highlights key factors of vocal writing: vocal mechanics, sound output, voice type, range, Fach and tessitura and their affect on vocal colour, weight and resonance. The focus of Chapter 3 is text in song; discussing subject matter and the authors I have chosen to set. Chapter 4 then explores the topic of art song; beginning with a discussion on text setting and narrative, followed by key concepts of motivic material and the role of accompaniment. Chapter 5 outlines my approaches towards unaccompanied vocal music and the use of extended vocal techniques. Text fragmentation is also a key feature here in discussing the exploration of phonics as opposed to story narrative. Lastly, in Chapter 6, I have outlined my approaches to musical drama and the use of the voice in the theatrical setting. Extremes of vocal production and the added element of staging and characterisation heighten the level of physicality that is beyond the standard performance realm of art song, thus necessitating different requirements from the composer.

Within the field of Sound Studies, discourse on noise has increasingly looked to define noise by examining its affective and transformative properties, reformulating the question 'What is noise?' to 'What does noise do?' (Thompson 2017: 49). Approaching noise in this way presents an alternative to the three commonly accepted definitions of noise frequently utilised in texts on composition. These define noise as unwanted sound, spectrally dense sound, or loud sound. Through practice-based research this thesis and portfolio explores how the question 'what does noise do?' can be applied to creative sound practice. By repurposing Claude Shannon's (1948) A Mathematical Theory of Communication the thesis lays out an approach for employing the transformative and generative potential of noise within composition. This approach provides a simple framework for engaging with the near limitless applications of the transformative properties of noise within creative sound practice. By reframing the role of noise in this way, this approach offers an alternative to conventional methods for utilising noise within composition, which generally treat noise as a qualitative or quantitative property of a sound. Creative applications of this approach are examined through discussions of both the accompanying portfolio and related work from other practitioners. The discussion is split between three different forms of creative sound practice: improvisation with playback media, score based instrumental composition and fixed media electroacoustic composition. Each of these areas of discussion relate to specific projects within the portfolio: an improvisatory performance practice using modified CD players, scores utilising visual noise, and a fixed media composition available as both a digital download and a telephone hotline. This discussion highlights how, as well as being a novel way of approaching composition, when used as a transformative and generative tool noise is uniquely adept at interrogating the flaws in commonly accepted notions in creative sound practice; instruments become performers, performers become composers, and what was once fixed becomes variable.

The six-part Harmonie of clarinets, horns and bassoons, despite being a popular ensemble in the 18th century, has only a small repertoire suitable for modern concert performance. The logical solution is to extend the tradition of arrangement associated with the ensemble to expand its repertoire. However, previous approaches to scoring for historical winds and brass by modern editors and arrangers have often resulted in writing that is unidiomatic to the instruments. In this project, I use practice-based research and analysis to develop a new approach to writing for historical wind instruments. Analysis of examples of historical writing for the clarinet, horn and bassoon, and examination of historical practices by the leading creators of Harmoniemusik in the early-19th century is used to understand how to write idiomatically for the instruments. Study of virtuoso solo repertoire from the same period is used as the basis for expanding the range of possibilities to allow the arrangement of more challenging works than was typical at the time. The possibilities raised by this study are then explored and developed through three substantial new arrangements of works by Mozart and Beethoven. Each arrangement illustrates different facets of the arranging process and the creative re-imagining of the source work, further elaborated by accompanying commentaries. I argue that this method of research offers a new understanding of the capabilities of historical wind instruments that is of future value to both composers and musicologists.